Trees and Rocks, Rocks and Trees

Trees and Rocks; Rocks and Trees is all young Robbie sees when he views Canada for the first time from the deck of the steamship. At fifteen, he and his twelve-year-old brother have been sent away, from their native land, to work as indentured farm workers. As he looks upon the vast and empty land, he wonders what life now has in store for him and if he will ever see his mother, father or sister again.

This adaptation of Sandra Joyce’s powerful first book, The Street Arab – The Story of a British Home Child is meant for young readers. It is a story about a boy, from a small Scottish mining town, whose family has been torn apart by the First World War and resulting poverty. After foraging for food one day, Robbie returns to find his family is missing and suffers a terrible accident. With strength and determination, he forges ahead and is sent along with countless other British Home Children, to Canada to begin a new life.

Trees and Rocks; Rocks and Trees, pays homage to the more than 100,000 British Home Children sent to Canada over a period of seventy years. It is estimated that at least ten percent of Canada’s current population are descendants of these Children.